


We Always Have Each Other

by maycollins



Category: Frankenstein - Mary Shelley, Frankenstein MD
Genre: Childhood, Childhood Friends, F/M, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 08:03:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2302478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maycollins/pseuds/maycollins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of drabbles focusing on Eli and Victoria's childhood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New Boys and Long Names

The smiling boy stuck out his hand. “I'm Eli,” he said.

  
Victoria shook it vigorously. Her mother had insisted she greet him most enthusiastically. He would be in Victoria's second grade class starting tomorrow, and being an old friend of his family, Mrs. Frankenstein wanted Eli to know Victoria before he began.

  
“I'm Victoria Frankenstein,” she responded, finally releasing his hand.

  
“That's a pretty long name.” he grinned.

  
“Well I deserve it.” She took a step back, offended. He took a step closer.

  
“I believe that you do,” he agreed, and her defensive posture eased a degree.

  
“I'm going to be great someday!” She declared, and he didn't doubt it.


	2. The Gravest Injury

“Ow!” A spurt of blood appeared on Eli's finger.

“Ohmygod.” Victoria rushed to his side. “What happened? How can I help?”

“It's nothing,” Eli said. “Just a paper cut.” He flashed her a charming smile as if to prove his total okay-ness.

“A paper cut deep enough to draw blood,” she argued. “It's pretty serious. I think I'm going to need to amputate.”

He quickly pulled his hand into his chest and out of her reach. “What? No!” he exclaimed.

“C'mon Eli,” she pressed, “there could be all sorts of diseases and bacteria in that paper cut, and who needs a pinky finger anyway?”

“He slowly returned his injured finger to the desk where his friend could see and operate on it. “Okay...” he agreed tentatively.

She pulled out a pair of yellow safety scissors, and had them perfectly positioned around the finger.

“What are you doing?” A stern voice interrupted, plucking the scissors from Victoria's grasp.

“Nothing,” Eli rushed to reply at the same time as Victoria responded, “Saving his life.”

“By cutting his finger?” She asked.

“To spare him from getting sick,” Victoria explained solemnly.

“And you thought that hurting him might help this?” The teacher inquired.

Victoria just crossed her arms and huffed, “well it's not like he was in any real danger anyway.”


	3. Different Families

“Is it okay if Eli comes to stay with us for a few days?” Mrs. Frankenstein asked her daughter.

“Like a sleepover?” Victoria asked, already smiling at the thought of her best (and only) friend's company.

“Sort of, but a little bit different. You know Eli's family is different from us, right?”

The little girl shook her head quietly. She knew that she'd never been to Eli's house, but she never thought there was anything strange about that.

“Have you noticed that he doesn't have a daddy?” Her mom asked.

“Everyone has a father,” Victoria argued. “People are made when a sperm cell from a male goes into-” she was cut off.

“I know, but not all dads stay like yours does. Eli's daddy left before he was born, and that made his mommy really sad.”

“Why would anybody leave Eli? He's so nice.” Victoria asked.

“I don't know. Some people just aren't strong enough to deal with everything that gets handed to them.”

“Is Eli's mom weak too?” Victoria's eyes were growing wide with shock. Butterflies and infected cuts made sense to her, but people seemed so complicated.

“Sometimes we all are,” was the only answer she got.

Without a moment of consideration, she said “Eli can stay as long as he wants. He can even have my bed.”

“That's very nice of you, Victoria, but like I said, he only needs to stay for a few days.”


	4. Science Class

“Where were you?” Eli called from Victoria's front porch, rocking absentmindedly on the old porch swing.

“Science class!” She grinned, coming up the stairs to join him.

“After school?” He planted his feet on the ground to stop it so Victoria could get on.

“Yeah, it's really fun. We build planes, and mine flew the furthest,” she bragged. “Because nobody else took air resistance into account.”

“Nobody's as smart as you, Tori,” he defended. “You're special.”

“I don't like Tori. It makes me sound like a cheerleader; keep trying,” she responded, ignoring the rest his statement.

“Alright, Vicky” he agreed. “So what else do you do in this science class?”

“Definitely not Vicky,” she responded, “and to answer your question, we're growing plants in different environments to determine what conditions are ideal. And next week, we're going to the planetarium. And we play science Jeopardy every month. It's fun even though the questions are pretty obvious.”

Eli just shook his head because he didn't think she was never going to be able to understand how different, and impressive, she was.


	5. What Happens at Camp...

The summer before middle school started, Victoria went to a math and science camp. For the first time in her life, it felt like she was with equals. All the other kids had as great minds and as big goals as she did, and all day, every day was filled with conversations of the wonders of the natural world, and all the improvements to their knowledge that could be made. These were children who would one day truly make the world a better place, and Victoria could feel it very keenly.

Even the near daily letters from Eli could not keep her grounded. Her mind was soaring, with no limits. And she felt like she was connecting to people, really connecting, in a way she hadn't before, even with Eli. These people understood her like no one ever had or would.

That was the summer she met Iggy DeLacey. He was just as smart as all the other boys and girls, but he had an odd way of showing it. He was loud and goofy and full of energy, and Victoria was immediately drawn to him.

While dissecting a shark together, they struck up a conversation and became fast friends, sticking close together for the remainder of the summer.

Their group also included a few other boys including Harrison Fletcher and James Hayes. Although Victoria seemed fully oblivious of this fact, there was a painful majority of boys over girls at this camp, and while most of the other females stuck together, Victoria was not scared of branching out.

That was also the summer of her very first kiss. She and James were sitting together at the dock during an hour of free time, James fishing for their next test subject while Victoria recorded observations about their last.

Suddenly, he pulled the fishing rod out of the water and set it down.

“What are you doing?” She exclaimed. “You're going to mess up our data.”

“I got distracted,” he confessed.

“By what,” she sighed in exasperation.

“You,” he replied with a coy smile, leaning in. Victoria thought about it for a second and decided that she wasn't particularly opposed to kissing him. So she closed the gap, and it was short and sweet and a little awkward, and neither of them mentioned it again for the remainder of the summer.

Of course, as Victoria recounted her time at camp to Eli, the story came up. “And then he kissed me,” she explained.

Eli's reaction was nothing like what Victoria had been anticipating. “W...wha..what?” he sputtered. “You kissed someone?”

“No need to sound so shocked Eli!” she exclaimed. “I'm allowed to have a social life.”

“I know,” he said, then repeated it for emphasis. “I know. I just...I always thought.....”

“What did you think?” She hissed. “That I'm some hyper focused robot genius? I'm a person too.”

“I said I know,” he yelled in frustration, shocked by the force of his own voice. He paused. “God, Vic, I'm so sorry. I don't even know what's gotten into me,” he apologized, though he knew he was lying. He was 100% certain of why he was acting this way, and he was also 100% certain that he wasn't going to say anything about it ever again.

Her scowl suddenly turned into a grin, and he couldn't help but smile back. “What?” he asked.

“I like Vic.”


	6. It's Always a Surprise

Eli's footsteps pounded up the stairs, so familiar to Victoria that she knew exactly who it was the moment the door swung shut behind him. She knew he was on his way, and she knew he'd be disgusted at the state of her room, but she couldn't bring herself to rise from the bed and do anything about it. He rapped gently at the door, and receiving no answer, gently pushed it open.

He quickly took in the odd stains of chemicals dripping down the walls and the broken glass littering the floor but said nothing about it.

“I just heard, Vic,” he whispered. “I'm so sorry.”

“We knew she was sick,” Victoria muttered. “It's not like it's a surprise.”

“It's always a surprise,” he said, lying in the space next to her.

She rolled over so she was looking at him. This close, she could see that his face was already loosing its childlike roundness, and his hair was sticking up from running his fingers through it. He did that when he was worried.

She craved that familiarity.

She curled into him, feeling the lean muscles under his shirt. He might still be in that awkward skinny phase that teenage boys inevitably go through, but he was in perfect shape. He wrapped his arms around her thin frame, and Victoria just wanted to melt right into him. He felt like home, and right now she wasn't so sure what home meant.

“I don't know who to be without her,” Victoria said with a shuddering breath.

"Be yourself,” Eli assured, and something in his loving voice shattered her. She sobbed into his chest, gripping his tee-shirt for support. He ran his hand in slow circles over her back as she cried.

“I just miss my mom,” she gulped in between sobs, and he tightened his grip on her, saying nothing because he knew that no words would be able to help.

“I should have been able to save her,” Victoria continued. “I can win science fair awards and prove trigonometric identities and perfectly execute chemical reactions, but I can't even stop a tiny bit of cancer.”

“Is that what all this mess is?” He asked, and she nodded weakly.

“I can't let anyone I love die again. I'll find a way to stop it.”

“That's not your responsibility Vic,” Eli warned.

She turned her tear stained face to look him straight in the eyes. “Then whose is it, E?” she asked, voice wavering.


	7. We Take Care of Each Other

Victoria couldn't really figure out what was going on. The ball just kept being thrown and caught and hit, and although she vaguely knew the rules, she didn't understand the appeal. Sports weren't really her thing. But recently, they seemed to be Eli's.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, running up to her during half time.

“I wanted to watch you play,” she stated.

“You didn't have to do that.” But he was grinning, and she knew that yeah, she did have to.

“Well you've been to every single one of my math meets, and all we do there is sit silently and solve problems. At least there are decent refreshments here,” she joked, holding up a can of coke. “At least, if you don't read the list of ingredients,”

“I love watching you do math,” he replied, flashing her one last smile over his shoulder as he ran out to pitch. Only a sophomore, he was already the best pitcher that their school had. As he struck out player after player, Victoria found herself wondering when he had been doing all that practicing, and why he hadn't told her about it before.

“You're really fantastic, E,” she told him later that night as they reclined in her room, Eli doing homework while Victoria mixed some sort of chemicals.

“Thanks,” a slight blush crept into his cheeks “It's good being part of a team.”

“You always have been,” Victoria said without looking up.

“I know, but this is different.”

“How so?” She inquired, setting the beaker down, evidently done.

“With you, it doesn't even feel like a team anymore,” he tried to explain. “It's more like I'm a part of you, and you're a part of me. We can't be a team because we're practically one person.”

“That's not how it works. Even identical twins are a little different,” Victoria stated, going towards her closet to pick out some pajamas.

“I know, but that's how it feels.” Eli shut his text book and looked uncertainly around.

“Is your mom still gone?” Victoria asked, unbuttoning her shirt so that she was standing in front of him in just jeans and a bra. She had never been the self conscious sort.

Eli cast his eyes uncomfortably to the ground as she shed her pants as well. “Yeah, but it's fine,” he said, studying the ground carefully, trying not to think about his best friend standing half naked in front of him.

“You're welcome to stay,” she invited, choosing an oversized CalTech tee-shirt and men's boxers to sleep in.

“It's really no problem,” he insisted, still looking down.

“I think I phrased that wrong before. You're staying here,” she ordered. “I'm not allowing you to go to an empty, dirty, possibly flea infested house when there a perfectly safe, comfortable alternative. And by the way, you can look up again.”

His head shot up. “I wasn't...I just...” he stammered.

“You're such a dork,” she teased, climbing under the cover and patting the spot next to her. “But I love it. Now come; this bed is way too big for just me.”

“You don't have to do that,” he argued. “I really can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, but you don't have to.” She pulled the covers aside. “Now are you going to turn off the light and make this easy, or am I going to have to come get you.”

He flicked the switch, and grinned invisibly in the dark. Settling himself next to Victoria, he closed his eyes and felt that this was the one place in the world where he completely belonged. She sleepily rested her head on his chest, still a little sweaty from the game.

“We take care of each other,” she whispered. “That's what it means to be best friends.”


End file.
